Former sheriff's office finance director gets plea deal for 3-7 years in embezzlement case Raye Brutnell was accused of stealing more than $700,000 from the Sheriff's Office and its employee benevolence fund. (SAR)

 St. Augustine Record article on unbelievably sweet deal, which caused jail prisoners' raised eyebrows on Zoom video feed during last week's guilty plea.  

If I were Circuit Court Judge, I would ask the special prosecutor and the defendant the sort of tough questions that Judge John J. Sirica asked during the Watergate case.

Will Ms. Brutnell give evidence against others?

Her husband, other Sheriff's employees?

She embezzled for five years.

Where are the results of the forensic audits?

Where is the repentance?

Where are the proposed new internal controls?

Or is this another St. Johns County coverup, honoring the political machine's oath of omertà? 

From St. Augustine Record:

Former sheriff's office finance director gets plea deal for 3-7 years in embezzlement case

Raye Brutnell was accused of stealing more than $700,000 from the Sheriff's Office and its employee benevolence fund

Sheldon Gardner

St. Augustine Record

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The former St. Johns County Sheriff's Office finance director accused of embezzling money from the agency has reached a plea deal that would send her to prison for as little as three years and up to about seven years. 

Raye Brutnell was arrested in November 2018 amid allegations that she stole more than $700,000 from the sheriff's office and its employee benevolence fund over about five years by creating fraudulent vendor accounts and issuing checks to them.

According to the sheriff’s office, Brutnell initiated 74 payments to fictitious accounts totaling $702,773, including 51 payments from the benevolence fund worth $80,115 and a “misappropriated” benevolence fund check of $2,868.

Charges reduced: Special prosecutor files charges against former Sheriff’s Office finance director

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Raye Brutnell's plea deal 

Brutnell was facing 11 felony charges and had entered a plea of not guilty. If convicted on all charges and sentenced consecutively, she could have faced up to 150 years in prison.

Here's where the case stands now:

As part of the plea deal, Brutnell agreed to plead guilty to two counts of grand theft and one count of executing a scheme to defraud on a financial institution. 

She had been charged with two counts of criminal use of personal identification. But as part of the deal, she agreed to plead guilty to one charge of criminal use of personal identification information. 

The state has agreed not to prosecute six charges: Fraudulently creating or using counterfeit personal identification information; official misconduct; forging a bank bill; uttering a forged bill, check or draft; unlawful use of a two-way communication device; and failure to properly apply solicited charitable contributions. 

Under the deal, the harshest sentence would be 88.35 months in prison, a little over seven years, followed by 10 years of probation. That is the sentence proposed if she hasn't paid a minimum amount of restitution by her sentencing date of Aug. 17 ―   $79,531.57 to the St. Johns Sheriff's Benevolence Fund.

"I think 7 1/2 years in prison followed by 10 years of probation is pretty good for us," said Jake Orr, spokesman for the State Attorney's Office in the 10th Circuit, which is prosecuting the case. "I think it's a good outcome." 

A consideration for the State Attorney's Office is opening the door for Brutnell to pay restitution. 

"The benevolence fund was money that the sheriff's office employees and deputy sheriffs use and count on, and if that money can be returned that's a positive," he said. 

Brutnell is required to pay $79,531.57 to the St. Johns Sheriff's Benevolence Fund, $99,800 to the Florida Sheriff's Risk Management Fund and $679,868.55 to the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office. 

The sentences recommended in the plea deal vary depending on the restitution she has paid by her sentencing date. The sentences range from three years in prison followed by five years of probation, to seven years in prison followed by 10 years of probation. 

Judge Lee Smith is handling the case and does not have to accept the deal. 

Once she is on probation, Brutnell will continue to pay restitution if she hasn't paid it already. Her life will be restricted in a variety of ways, including not being able to work or engage in a position where she has fiduciary duties.

Her probation could be ended early after at least five years if she meets all conditions. 

Brutnell's attorney, Hank Coxe, declined to comment on Friday. 

"I don't think it would be appropriate to say anything at this time," he said. 

Charges reduced in 2018 

The case has not been handled by the local State Attorney's Office of the 7th Judicial Circuit. 

Because of Brutnell’s former position with the sheriff's office and because her husband worked as an agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and once worked in St. Johns County, 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza requested Gov. Rick Scott to appoint a special prosecutor, saying that the couple is known to him personally and professionally.

Scott appointed 10th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office to handle the case.

Brutnell originally faced more than 160 charges, but prosecutors reduced the charges to 11. 

In 2018, Orr said the consolidation from 163 charges down to 11 was not a sign that Brutnell was getting special treatment but was a judgment call made by prosecutors to pursue charges of “strong, very serious crimes given the underlying facts of the case.”

“We filed the charges that we felt were appropriate to get us where we need to be,” he said at the time.